


Red

by Lysandra



Category: Bartimaeus - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: Anal Sex, Dirty Talk, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, Oral Sex, PWP, Post-Canon, Power Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 15:32:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15844203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lysandra/pseuds/Lysandra
Summary: It's all in the flesh. Nathaniel's, specifically.





	Red

Nathaniel never knew what to do with his hands when Bartimaeus was going down on him.

In bed, he could clutch at the sheets or drag a pillow over his face. Standing, he had the option of bracing himself against the wall or the nearest piece of furniture. But sitting on the loveseat in his office, as he was now, he was at a loss.

Fortunately, as things wore on this seemed less and less important. Nathaniel gasped quietly at the feeling of a forked tongue doing things it was quite possibly criminal to do. Bartimaeus’s golden eyes flicked up to his face. He couldn’t give a smug grin - his mouth was full - but his eyes crinkled around the edges. Nathaniel allowed himself to slide his trembling fingers into Bartimaeus’s curly hair. Bartimaeus purred his approval. Although he still favored the form of the young Egyptian boy, he was more often now in his current shape of a young Sumerian man. The guise was _excessively_ beautiful; he had sharp cheekbones, a pointed chin, and heavy-lidded eyes framed by long lashes, and his hair fell down to his shoulders in perfect black curls. He knew what this shape did to Nathaniel. That, of course, was why he wore it.

Lips, tongue. The sound of Nathaniel’s cock in Bartimaeus’s mouth was hot and wet. Nathaniel let out a harsh moan. Bartimaeus didn’t have a gag reflex. He- he _really_ didn’t have a gag reflex. Nathaniel very nearly fell off the sofa.

“ _Bartimaeus_ ,” he warned shakily, but the djinni only sucked harder. With a gasp, he let pleasure crash over him, taking his breath away in delicious spasms. He slumped to the side a little, panting.

Bartimaeus sat back on his heels, using a thumb to wipe at the corner of his mouth. He looked very much like the cat who’d got the cream, smug and sultry. “Good?” he asked. Nathaniel cleared his throat, zipping up his trousers.

“Yes...thank you.”

Bartimaeus took one of Nathaniel’s hands in his and kissed his palm, slowly and deliberately. The gesture was oddly intimate, even more so than what they’d just done. Bartimaeus’s lips found the pulse in Nathaniel’s wrist and kissed there, too. Nathaniel’s eyes flicked down. It wasn’t possible to tell through the layers of skirts Bartimaeus wore whether he was aroused or not, but from previous experience, Nathaniel would have guessed-

“Yes.”

Nathaniel blinked. “Sorry?”

“You’re wondering if you made me hard?” Bartimaeus grinned, his eyes hot. “Don’t be coy. You're staring at my lap.”

Nathaniel stifled his instinctive reaction of flustered indignation. But the thought that Bartimaeus, otherworldly as he was, could feel the same way that Nathaniel did so easily was disarming. “Oh,” he said. “I- well. Good.”

Bartimaeus was looking at him the way a cat looked at its prey before striking. “Yes...I can’t help how excited I get when I suck your pretty cock.” His voice was low and husky and he unfurled himself from the floor to straddle a blushing Nathaniel’s lap. Sure enough, Nathaniel could feel the djinni’s erection pressing into his belly.

“I...am going to be late for work,” said Nathaniel. He was suddenly aware of how sweaty and disheveled he must look in his sharp suit. How had he gotten talked into this? He hadn’t even had time to eat his toast before work.

“It seems so,” said Bartimaeus, moving to mouth at his neck.

“No,” said Nathaniel. “Bartimaeus, honestly. I can’t miss this meeting.”

Sensing his seriousness, Bartimaeus pouted. “You’re going to leave me like this? It’s not good for the essence, you know, to be all pent-up. I’ll start cramping.”

“You have hands,” said Nathaniel. “I trust you can work out what to do with them.”

“Oh, _now_ he has faith in me.”

“When I get back...” Nathaniel licked his lips. “When I get back...perhaps you can tell me exactly what you did?” It was a bold suggestion, he felt.

“Hmm…” Bartimaeus tapped his chin with a single finger. “Alright. I’ll give it a whirl.”

Nathaniel paused. The djinni was avoiding his eyes, strangely. “You’ve done it before, haven’t you?”

“Of course not. That’s why I have you. And, really, what good are you if you’re not touching my-” Nathaniel jostled Bartimaeus enough to tip him out of his lap and onto the sofa next to him.

“Have fun,” he said. “Call me if you can’t work it out.”

When Nathaniel returned home from work that evening, he had a pounding headache and his mind was so full of bureaucratic nonsense that he’d almost forgotten about the events of that morning. Fortunately, Bartimaeus materialized in the loveseat as Nathaniel was passing it to get to his desk. He jumped, cursing.

“I told you not to do that!” he snapped.

“Is that how you greet me? No kiss? No ‘hello’?”

Nathaniel sighed. “Hello,” he said in complete monotone. “I missed you very much, and I am very tired.”

“What are they doing to you over there? You look like you’ve just escaped prison.”

“I have,” Nathaniel sighed. “And, unfortunately, there is still more for me to do.” He’d be up until midnight at least.

“But Nat,” said Bartimaeus, hooking a foot around his calf and stroking seductively, “Don’t you want to hear how I played with myself while you were gone?” His tone was salacious, lust dripping off every word.

Nathaniel inhaled sharply. He did. Of course.

“Right,” he said. “You...were going to tell me all about it.”

“Mm-hmm.” The djinni was smiling almost coyly. “I did it in your office chair over there, to begin with. Don’t worry - I didn’t make a mess.”

Nathaniel shrugged out of his jacket.

“So I got very naked, and I sat there, and I just...touched myself. The way you always touch me, you know the way I like it. And it felt so good that I finished myself twice.”

“Were you loud?” Nathaniel asked faintly. He was thinking of the neighbors, and also of the delirious mental picture the thought painted.

“Only a little. I was thinking of what I’m about to do to you.”

“Oh.” Nathaniel was suddenly considerably less tired.

“And how you’d react when I told you that I made myself come to the thought of you.”

“ _Oh.”_

“Right, yes. Exactly like that. The way you get all pink and your eyes get huge and...well, if I need to do that again, I suppose I know what I’ll think about, hmm?”

“Yes,” said Nathaniel, and crawled into Bartimaeus’s lap. He straddled him as he kissed him hungrily. Bartimaeus bit his lip, just hard enough to smart a little, and then nipped at his earlobe. This succession of events was quick enough to tell Nathaniel that Bartimaeus must want this very badly - he was ordinarily excruciatingly slow in foreplay, wanting Nathaniel to wait before he was rewarded. Nathaniel’s heart beat fast. He twisted his fingers into Bartimaeus’s hair. He could feel the pleasurable warmth of arousal building in his belly already. He’d been antsy in the office, thinking of black eyes and deft fingers and a mouth full of sharp teeth.

Bartimaeus was still kissing at Nathaniel’s neck, but one hand squeezed him through his trousers. Nathaniel gave a soft sigh of approval. He ran his hands down Bartimaeus’s chest, stopping to rub his thumbs over his nipples, and the djinni groaned quietly, and the hand on the front of Nathaniel’s trousers went from squeezing to rubbing vigorously.

“Did you get ready?” Bartimaeus asked.

“I did, yeah.” Nathaniel exhaled shakily.

“Good. Well, then-”

Being slung over his lover’s shoulder and speedily marched to the bedroom was never a particularly enjoyable part of their routine, but Nathaniel had come to tolerate it, if only because he looked even more ridiculous shouting and kicking in his suit and tie.

Bartimaeus deposited him directly on the bed and hovered over him, deftly undoing his tie. Nathaniel reached for his waist, but he’d removed his clothes already.

“You know I wish you wouldn’t do that,” said Nathaniel. “I never get to undress you.”

“What a waste of time,” said Bartimaeus. He was working on Nathaniel’s dress shirt now, undoing the buttons. Nathaniel felt a familiar twinge of self-consciousness, but the hungry excitement in Bartimaeus’s eyes soothed his worries. He sat up to shrug out of his shirt, and to aid Bartimaeus in removing his pants. Two more layers of clothing landed on the floor.

“Finally,” Bartimaeus sighed, peeling off Nathaniel’s socks. Nathaniel almost laughed at his huffy irritation. Instead, he grabbed him by the shoulders and leaned in for a kiss, and when Bartimaeus stroked his lower lip with his tongue he let his hands slip down his chest to pinch at his nipples. Bartimaeus twitched at this; he’d vocalized before how much he liked it. Fortunately for Nathaniel, the ways in which Bartimaeus liked to be touched stayed the same regardless of the shape he’d taken, which meant that Nathaniel had come to memorize the patterns that made his essence thrum. He dropped a hand to wrap it loosely around Bartimaeus’s cock, playing with him but not touching him in an especially purposeful manner yet. The djinni purred.

Nathaniel was only twenty-five, but Bartimaeus easily matched his sexual appetite. He was always hard, always hungry, always nudging Nathaniel awake in the dead of night, slipping his hand into his pajamas and murmuring _I’m bored._ Nathaniel recalled how his sense of touch had sharpened when they’d shared a body, and he occasionally wondered whether Bartimaeus’s enhanced senses made sex a greater temptation for him.

Bartimaeus took Nathaniel’s cock in hand and stroked him firmly. He pulled away from his lips. “Do you remember the first time we got off like this?” he asked. “In your bed that morning. As I recall, we didn’t even get our clothes off.” Nathaniel remembered. He remembered the frantic scramble to the nearest flat surface, how they lay together, kissing and gasping and toying with each other until they brought each other off for the first time, one after the other.

Nathaniel pushed into Bartimaeus’s hand a little. “I remember.” Bartimaeus stopped touching him, then, in order to locate the small bottle in the nightstand, and Nathaniel waited with bated breath, hot and tense. He shifted quickly onto his back, spreading his legs a little. He felt touch-hungry and tremulous.

Bartimaeus slicked up two fingers, but he started with one. Nathaniel sighed and closed his eyes at the sensation of being stretched open. Bartimaeus crooked his finger and Nathaniel groaned, hips jerking at the jolt of pleasure.

“That’s the spot, eh? Damn, I’m good.”

Nathaniel didn’t respond. Often, Bartimaeus’s constant chatter faded into background noise that neither bothered nor interested him. It was only when he wasn’t there, in the times when he returned to the Other Place to rest, that Nathaniel noticed its absence.

Bartimaeus added a finger and rubbed over the spot that made Nathaniel’s toes curl. He made a noise in response that was embarrassingly close to a whimper. “You’re hot for it tonight,” he said. “You’re going to love this, when I get inside you. I bet you won’t be able to last five minutes.”

_Neither will you,_ he thought, but Nathaniel nodded vigorously, gasping. Bartimaeus _was_ good at this. He was good at reading Nathaniel’s body, at making him writhe in record time.

“Do you want another finger?”

“No. I’m ready.”

Bartimaeus pulled his fingers out and Nathaniel, acting on an impulse, rolled over and raised himself onto his hands and knees. Bartimaeus stroked a hand down his back. This wasn’t the most dignified position, but the angle was good. He shuddered at the cool wetness as Bartimaeus added lubricant, slid his fingers in again to slick him up as much as possible. Another moment of anticipation, and then the sensation of Bartimaeus’s cock against his opening. Nathaniel inhaled.

Bartimaeus paused. “You know,” he said slowly, as though he were tasting the words, “I’m not sure if you _really_ want it.”

Nathaniel groaned and squirmed, trying to close the space between them. “I want it,” he panted. “Just-”

“Ask me for it.” Bartimaeus rubbed himself teasingly against Nathaniel’s buttocks. Arousal clenched hot and painful in Nathaniel’s stomach.

“May I have it?” he rasped. Bartimaeus clicked his tongue.

“Have what, dear?”

Nathaniel gave a shuddering sigh. He was so excited he’d almost lost the ability to be bashful. “May I have your cock?” The djinni’s fingers tightened on Nathaniel’s hip; he pushed back against him eagerly.

“Better. But I don’t know if I’m convinced...” Bartimaeus’s voice was low and dark, velvety.

Nathaniel arched his back. His entire body throbbed with how badly he wanted this. He took a hasty breath. “ _Master_ , may I have your cock?”

Nathaniel wasn’t sure which of them was more surprised at the words that had slipped out of his mouth. Bartimaeus inhaled sharply, and for a moment Nathaniel feared that he’d miscalculated terribly. And then he was being rolled onto his back, hands pushing his thighs apart.

“Oh,” said Bartimaeus. “You’re getting it now, boy.” His eyes were jet black.

He thrust into Nathaniel hard, and Nathaniel cried out at the sudden fullness. Hot and thick and good. He clung to Bartimaeus, chest heaving, as the djinni fucked him hard and deep. He’d figured out by now how to alter his own anatomy so that he was a perfect fit for Nathaniel, and Nathaniel moaned thickly as pleasure washed over him in waves.

Bartimaeus leaned down, bracing himself with his hands on either side of Nathaniel’s chest. “Is this good?” he ground out. “Is this what you wanted, my love?”

“Good,” Nathaniel moaned. “Bart, _mm-_ ”

“ _Ah,_ ” Bartimaeus moaned. Their rhythm faltered. He slowed down for a moment, then returned to his previous faster pace. “You are so...tight.”

Nathaniel’s cock throbbed at the words. He reached up to tangle his fingers in Bartimaeus’s hair. The look on his face was of pure pleasure, brow knit together and mouth half-open. He was rarely so unguarded as when they made love. Here it was simply impossible for him to hide what he was thinking. Nathaniel wanted to touch himself, but he knew this would last longer if he didn’t. Nathaniel grabbed Bartimaeus’s forearms and pulled. It was one of the nonverbal gestures they’d developed: _Down on your forearms._

Bartimaeus complied, lowering himself so that the two of them ground together more slowly and Nathaniel could press his face into Bartimaeus’s shoulder. Every thrust produced a surge of hot pleasure; Nathaniel was squirming, moving his hips urgently against Bartimaeus’s. The djinni was making a sound halfway between a groan and a growl.

“Talk to me,” gasped Nathaniel. Oh, that voice. He wore so many faces, but he simply sounded like himself. His irritating, bewildering, infuriating, beloved self.

“You feel outstanding,” Bartimaeus moaned. “You are so hot inside. You do _unnatural_ things to me, tie my essence into knots. I should tell all the magicians that you work with that you let me fuck you, and that you look...so perfect...when I do... _ah…_ ”

The words came slow and jerky. That meant he was close, Nathaniel knew. So was he. He let his fingernails bite into Bartimaeus’s shoulders.

“Come with me,” Bartimaeus said. And he did. They cried out together, so close they could almost be one again. It was hot and intense, the rush of sensation that started in Nathaniel’s pelvis and shot through his body. His release smeared thick and sticky between them, and he could feel Bartimaeus pulse inside him as he shuddered through his climax, teeth bared.

They stayed like that for a moment, Bartimaeus nuzzling Nathaniel’s throat, and Nathaniel wrapped his arms around his partner. He wasn’t an enormous cuddler, but something about the post-orgasm haze got to him.

“Ah,” breathed Bartimaeus finally. “Simultaneous orgasms. Good for us, eh?”

A smile tugged at Nathaniel’s mouth. “Do we get an award for that, do you suppose?”

“We ought to. It’s not easy. But I’ve learned how to tell, when you’re close.”

“How so?”

“First you turn pink, and then you turn red.”

Nathaniel smiled wryly. “I can tell for you, too, if I’ve got my lenses in.”

“That’s cheating. My aura...?”

“It turns pink, and then it turns red.”

Bartimaeus kissed him then, and it wasn’t a passionate kiss, but a gentle one, almost tender. And then he was lifting himself off of Nathaniel, who hissed at the tenderness as their bodies slid apart.

Bartimaeus moved over to pull a towel out of the nightstand. “You’ll eat something after this, won’t you? You’re starting to look like a street urchin again.” Nathaniel shrugged, sitting up. He knew he’d lost some weight, but that always happened when his workload increased.

Bartimaeus’s eyes flashed and he tossed the towel on the bed. He reached out and used his index finger to lift Nathaniel’s chin. “Now, darling,” he purred. “I think you’ll find that’s an order from your _master_.” Nathaniel went hot, like boiling water was coursing through his veins. Of course Bartimaeus wouldn’t simply forget about his slip of the tongue. And what a slip it had been...

“I don’t know why I called you that,” he managed, his mouth dry. The intense look in Bartimaeus’s eyes made his heart thunder against his ribs.

“Oh, yes you do.” Bartimaeus smirked. He leaned in to press a kiss to the tip of Nathaniel’s nose while Nathaniel exhaled shakily. “Ham sandwich?” he suggested brightly.

“Ham sandwich,” Nathaniel agreed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> “gee lilly you sure write about bartimaeus sucking dick a whole lot"  
> ok but consider this: yeah


End file.
